MINISTRY UPDATE – Fall 2006

Greetings saints!  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ … (See: Ephesians 1:3)

A precious brother in the Lord who was very instrumental in planting and watering a lot of important seeds in my life before I became born again is now realizing his heavenly inheritance.  Jerry Cheadle, our brother-in-law, passed unexpectedly on October 26, 2006 from a blood clot in his lungs, and will be greatly missed by many.  Kathleen and I will be attending his funeral in Oregon on November 4, and while out there, spend a few weeks with my 102 year old father, and the rest of my family. 

God continues to use the Precious Testimonies ministry to plant and water seeds as well to help expand God’s kingdom in the lives of others, and to Him goes all the glory for certain.  The number of people coming to the website continues to steadily increase as the months go by, which we are truly humbled by.  It is always encouraging to know that one’s sowing into God’s harvest field is yielding crops in their season.   Thank all of you for your prayers and support, because without you, the ministry most likely would not be nearly as useful to the Lord. 

With busy lives, many of you may not have had the time to read some of the praise reports that come into the ministry, so we’ll reprint some of them for you so you can be encouraged like we are:

Anonymous:  I found this testimony "Nothing But Dirt" to be very encouraging, and my heart goes out to all those, including myself, that feel ... or have felt ...like giving up.  Thanks.

Matthew Mucklo:  Dear Norm - I just came across your website while Google-searching for "hell testimonies".  I too have had a chance to read Mary Baxter's book and your experience of riveting reading; it applies to me too.  I believe it happened just like she said.  Reading her book made me realize where a lot of the sick and twisted things of the world come from.  It was chilling to read and realize the influence that place has had on our society.  I just wanted to write in and thank you for your testimony of how you came across it.  It encourages me that I can ask God questions of things that I have doubts on and if I'm sincere about it, He too will answer me.  May God bless you and your ministry.

David Ewart:  Because your ministry, I have been greatly blessed.  Six former students, from 1981, have all contacted me this past year.  They found my testimony on your website and wrote me.  None of them knew that the other ones were doing the same thing -- it was all the Holy Spirit!  Four of them have even made face-to-face visits, praise the Lord forever.  They were nine and ten years old when I was their teacher.  I have been humbled by their reaching out to me, and again, can only give thanks and praise to my Lord Jesus!

Staff Note:  Brother David also sent us a copy of his "Near Death Experience."  We think it might be a great blessing for many to read.

Kay Crandall:  When I am praying for the miracles in the lives of my adult children and grandchildren and others on my prayer list, I like to have your web site up so that I can listen to the music in the background.  Although I don't know what the song it is, or the words to the song, the song is faith building to me, because it reminds me that God has done miracles before and will do them again.

Also wanted you to know that the music on your website is a blessing to me.

Lawrence Mendoza :  In 1999 while in Great Meadow Prison I sent you my personal testimony for Christ and you posted it on the Precious Testimonies website.  It was only through the abundant grace of our Lord that my son ... who I have not seen in 20 years ... read my testimony on your website.  He contacted you and your wife concerning me.  My son told me that you and your wife helped him locate me here at Clinton Correctional Facility.

I receive my first letter from my son in January 2006.  I cried tears of joy for quite sometime.  Word's can't express how thankful I am to you and your wife for keeping my testimony on the internet.  The Lord has answered my prayer concerning my only son who is 24 years old now.  The best part of it all is that he is born again and filled with the Holy Spirit!  (If you would like, you can read Lawrence's testimony by clicking here:  Let God Fight Your Battles

Eli:  I was browsing through Google tonight, looking for resources on forgiveness, when I came across your website and read  FORGIVEN SEX CRIME OFFENDER (The Robert Swift Story).

I just wanted to tell you how much it blessed me. When I was 14 months old I was burned in a house fire and was not expected to live. I had scars on my face and hands, but was really oblivious to it until, at the age of six, I had an extensive operation done to conceal the most obvious scars. After that I began to notice how people looked at me and I began to realize how different I was.  As a kid my family moved a lot, so not long after the operation we moved to a different town. I was excited to go to a new town and new church...but also very hesitant because of the realization that had come of my being different.

To make a long story short, I met a boy that began to "bully" me...saying cruel things like "Jesus doesn't let ugly people into heaven" and moments of violence like pushing me down flights of stairs. And slowly I began to lose what little I self worth I already had.

About four months into this, I "accidentally" stumbled upon some hard core porn sites on our computer. Don't ask me why I didn't immediately run away screaming or turn it off;  I don't know. Don't ask me why I returned to it the next day...and the next. I don't know. Maybe it was because I could tell the women in the pictures were not concerned about their faces (which is where most of my scars are). I think it made me feel more valuable...realizing that there was something of worth in my body...as if I still had a chance, you know? ( I was only age seven at the time...give me a little credit).

But, also, being a visual person (though I am a girl) ... what was once the unthinkable became not only common, but addictive...and by the time I was eight I had spiraled down into deep sexual sin. If you're already grossed out I'm sorry....I'm doing my best to be vague...but its about to get worse.

From the age of seven to nine I had found "opportunities" to see X-Rated movies and view the same type of materials through magazines, doing my best to feed the unquenchable flame of lust that had been so early awakened...all the while my family being oblivious. To say in short, they had NO clue. My parents were/are Christians and as a kid I grew up "cutting my teeth on the pews." So as you can see, I did my best to conceal my "other life."  Shame was a constant overcast in my life...and I was miserable.

Then one day, I was sitting with my mother and she began talking about how Jesus comes into peoples' hearts and makes them beautiful on the inside.  In a sheer moment of desperation and holy conviction I told her that I didn't care if I was ugly on the outside.  I wanted Jesus to come in and make me beautiful on the inside. That's how I got saved.

I immediately felt the shame lift and (like everyone first does), started thanking Him and making promises to Him I had every intention of keeping (one being never to look at porn again).

Life was good then. When I was ten we moved.  I was a new Christian of three months, and though I was struggling to stay pure, my promises still held true. I think those three months hold the best days of my life.

I'm kinda' at a loss of where to go from here.  I guess it just gets real personal to me...

A couple of months after we moved I became "involved" in a sexual relationship with a family member...and as much as I hated him, I think I hated me more. I could have told him to stop. I could have kicked or screamed...but I didn't, because in my heart I felt like he was doing me a favor. With my low self-image, I took his actions as a (very sinful) complement that he could find any form of physical pleasure in me.

The "relationship" continued for about two and a half years. The first night it happened I felt immediate shame and guilt, especially since I also took some form of pleasure out of it...and ended up retorting back into my old "lust cycle."  No one knew except me, him, Satan and God...and I was sure God had left a long time ago.  After showers I still felt dirty and believing that I was "used merchandise."

I coped with my shame by shaming myself more (did that make sense?). 

It was two and a half years of this cycle until one night I was with my best friend, and instead of "choosing" me (which I loved/hated) he chose her to satisfy his sick desire for lust. And man!...if looks could have killed that night...he would have been a dead man. A few weeks after that he came back...but I wouldn't let him touch me and that was the end of that.

Time has passed and a decade had gone by since my first encounter with porn. I find that the only thing in life that is constant (other than God) is change. Can I tell you that I never struggle with temptation and (dare I say?) fall??  I could...but that wouldn't be the truth. What I wish - with all my heart - that I could do is save other girls from the heartaches of relationships that wont get them anywhere!  I wish I could show them is the unfailing love of Christ that fills the holes in our hearts, that heals with wounds of the past, that touches and breathes life into our very being!

Anyway, again I just want to say thank you for even having this kind of web page up for people like me to see. Blessings in Christ.

Lori:  I just wanted to share with you that I decided to be on the inside with JESUS today (rededicate my life to God), and every day henceforth. I had asked Jesus into my heart on 4-20-2001 and my life was changing for the good.  However, I let my faith die some.  All the comments I heard -- even my mom would say things like, "I think you're in a cult; its not like you to go to church just once a week, but  your go two or three times a week!" Or - "Look - there is your religious section!" when walking through a store.  When I did ask JESUS into my life before, my life was taking such a positive turn; losing weight; got a job; was just plane happy without reason.  Well ... with reason, for I knew that I was excepted and forgiven of all my sins.

Today I have again decided to re-walk this path that I once was learning to follow.  I do not know a lot of the scripture but do know that I will be able to read and understand the bible now . Your testimony sounded so familiar.  Some of the things you explained were like thoughts right out of my own head.  I'm so glad that I visited your sight and what a wonderful way to bring others home! I thank you for reminding me that Satan will try to damage my new ways and thoughts (Mark 4).  This time I will remain on my path, spreading the word as I learn it!  Thank you.  GOD BLESS YOU!

Suzanne Clement:  I really enjoyed your weekly ministry encourager this time.  Especially because I have been around Catholics lately who always pray to St. Anthony when they lose something.  "He ALWAYS comes through for you," they say.  I remember when I was doing that myself.  Thank the Lord he freed me from Catholicism and all the trappings.

The Lord is good!  I too don't like to pray for something so "inconsequential."  I  am careful what I pray for, not wanting to "bother" the Lord with a silly request. 

Lately He has been reminding me:  "Therefore I say unto you, What things whatsoever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."   Mark: 11:24 

Pray without ceasing: 1Th 5:17 

Thank the Lord for His goodness that your wife found the car keys.  Another thing is...sometimes we are praying about something that has an answer right under our nose.

I sure do enjoy your weekly testimonies ... they really do encourage me.  Keep up the good work, and may the Lord bless you for it!

Staff Note:  You can read Suzanne's husband's testimony by clicking here: Holey Socks Their website can be accessed by clicking here: Upon This Rock!  

Chris:  I like your website.  Thanks for sharing other people's testimonies.  They are especially helpful in helping other people find God for themselves.  I also have a prayer request.  I want to be delivered from fear, and want to be reconciled back to God in a miraculous way over the next several months.

Dear Reader - are you at peace with God?  If not, you can be.  Do you know what awaits you when you die?  You can have the assurance from the Holy Spirit that heaven will be your home, if you would like to be certain.  Either Jesus Christ died for yours sins, or He didn't (He did!).  Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day and tell Him that you didn't need the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to cover your sins?  We plead with you ... please don't make such a tragic mistake.

To be at peace with God; to make certain heaven will be your home for eternity; to make certain that you are in right-standing with God right now ... please click here to help understand the importance of being reconciled to God.  What you do about being reconciled to God will determine where you will spend eternity, precious one.  Your decision to be reconciled to God is the most important decision you'll ever make in this life.